Draw Or Fade, Shaping Your Golf Shot For The Mountains Or The Flat-lands
For most of us weekend warriors, golfing is more about relaxing and having a nice time on the golf course. Having the ability to shape your golf shot to draw or fade (not slice or hook) at will can add immensely to that enjoyment. After we have succeeded in learning to hit the ball straight at the target, the next important thing is to learn how get around the occasional tree or obstacle in the way.
The fade and draw are important to know even when there are no obstacles in our path. More often we will encounter situations where the ball is above or below our feet. The simple act of trying to hit the ball straight at the target is then complicated by the hill-side lie. So learning to compensate for the conditions you naturally find on most golf courses will go a ways in training you to hit these shots
For instance the draw is a shot that you want to curve to the left (if you are a right handed golfer). When you find yourself on a hill side with the ball below your feet you will be forced to set up to the ball in a way that will slightly emulate the same stance you would use for a draw if you were hitting off of a level lie. This is just so you can produce a straight shot.
Why?
Because you will automatically draw the ball to the left if you adopt your normal stance without compensating for the hill side. Here is what I mean, the ball below your feet will have you bending over more and your swing will be more around yourself than normal. If you address the ball with your shoulders pointing directly at the target your shot will wind up left of the target, because your club-face is closing more quickly with this type of “around” swing. Instead, set up to the ball with your club-face aimed slightly right of the target(don’t change that club-face alignment), move your right foot (non-target foot) back about 2″ depending on the severity of the hill, aim your shoulders in the direction established by your feet and then make your swing. Here is what should happen: your body alignment will have you making a more inside to outside swing, your club-face will be closed with respect to your body, the ball should start out heading to the right and then curve back to the left.
You would think that the opposite should be true for the different lie of the ball above your feet. However, the dynamics are the same, in both cases you are swinging around your body more than you would be for a level lie. In the case of the ball below your feet you bend more at the waist/knees and stand closer to the ball, with the up-hill lie you are standing more upright waist and knees (TO KEEP YOUR BALANCE) and also swing more around your body. The correction is also the same. Drop your right foot back a few inches and swing inside to out with a shoulder/body alignment pointing to the right of the target. Having grown up playing mountain courses with un-level fairways I have proven this to myself on numerous occasions. On too many of those occasions I found myself way left of my intended target until I learned to correct for the hill-side.
The next time you go to the driving range try to find an un-level lie situation and try this out for yourself. You may need to watch the video more than once to understand the technique, but these shots are a great thing to be able to pull out of your bag for certain situations. Comments are most welcome, let me know what you think.
